Imagine you're selling a product and a large gang – call it Gang A – comes along and tells you to stop and threatens to kill you, or at least destroy your property, if you don't. Gang A, though far way geographically, is very well-funded.

The British defence company at the centre of an abandoned corruption probe into a UK-Saudi Arabia weapons deals directly lobbied a key minister to drop the investigation. BAE Systems' lawyers called for the bribery inquiry to be halted on public

Germany's economy is finally picking up again, and tax revenues are increasing as a result, rising over 8% in November. The tax, which is levied on prostitutes, strip shows, pornographic cinemas, and massage parlors, in an attempt to balance its

The Bush administration is "increasingly alarmed" about the diversion of militarily sensitive technology to Iran and Syria via Dubai, a US official said, threatening unspecified action if this diversion was not halted.

British fraud investigators stopped a probe into a multi-billion pound arms deal with Saudi Arabia after Riyadh warned it would cancel the deal. The decision was made "in the wider public interest," balanced against the rule of law.

The Red-Dead Sea canal project, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion, would exploit the 1,320-foot difference in altitude between both areas. If implemented, the desert area between the two seas would benefit from the fresh water to turn th

China’s Communist Party has a new agenda: it is encouraging people to discuss what it means to be a major world power and has largely stopped denying that China intends to become one soon. China Central Television has broadcast a 12-part series descr

Following discussions with the Bush adminstration, several of Iraq's major political parties are in talks to form a coalition whose aim is to break the powerful influence of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr within the government

Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in Europe are giving it a try -- with good results. "We reject every form of legislation," the Russian artistocrat and "father of anarchism" Mikhail Bakunin

Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, the brutal dictator who repressed and reshaped Chile for nearly two decades and became a notorious symbol of human rights abuse and corruption, died yesterday at the Military Hospital of Santiago. He was 91.

FIGHTERS loyal to Somalia's Islamic courts last week took positions along the border with Ethiopia; this week they pushed further north than ever before, consolidating their grip. Loudspeakers under Islamist control blared out holy war against Et

German authorities began a criminal investigation of a Russian businessman after finding traces of polonium-210 around Hamburg beginning on Oct. 28 — 4 days before he met in London with the former Russian spy who died after ingesting the radioactive

Riots in China are threatening the Communist Party’s ability to rule. It is the first time that a partywide paper has asked how best to deal with rising public discontent and underscores the seriousness of the problem.

Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving protesters flooded central Beirut on Sunday after a call by the Hezbollah-led opposition to step up their 10-day campaign to topple Lebanon's Western-backed government.
In a huge show of force, the chanting

Chinese officials have secretly executed a demonstrator who took part in a massive protest in 2004 against a hydro-electric dam in the south-western province of Sichuan. In a grim postscript to the summer of rural unrest that overtook China two years

Instead of being praised for cracking down on vice, the Futian police came under a hail of criticism for violating the right to privacy of those who were paraded about in public. An outraged Shanghai lawyer started the uproar over the tactics with an

Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters,

The American secret service was bugging Princess Diana's telephone conversations without the approval of the British security services on the night she died, according to the most comprehensive report on her death, to be published this week.

The International Monetary Fund warned that China’s emergence as an alternative lender was creating a new wave of hidden debt in Africa as it backed its companies’ expansion overseas with increasingly aggressive lending.

A rash of fresh cases of radiation contamination linked to the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko have triggered speculation as to how he and others were exposed to the deadly substance, polonium-210.

Russian President Putin has signed a law dropping a minimal turnout threshold. Not voting, in the hope that low turnout would make them invalid has happened several times in the past, has been one of the means for people to register discontent.

European Socialists promised to work to rebuild Europe's strategic alliance with the United States now that the Democrats control Congress after last month's elections. Socialist leaders attending a meeting of the European Socialist Party ple

Supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales clashed with anti-government protesters who accuse him of trying to deprive the opposition of a voice in the drafting of a new constitution, local media reported.

North Korea has offered Russia exclusive rights to its natural uranium deposits in exchange for support at the stalled talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. Russia wants to enrich uranium and sell as nuclear fuel to China and Vietnam,

President Evo Morales signed contracts giving the government control over foreign energy companies' operations, completing a process begun May 1 with the nationalization of Bolivia's petroleum industry.